While the folks in Ohio played with their jeeps and the people in Moab explored with their wagons and trucks, I got to clean my parents garage.  I have wanted to tackle this project for a couple years now, but haven’t been able to for one reason or another.

However, this week, with dad still recovering from surgery (and having a tough time with it — nothing like having a persistent cough after having your sternum sliced open), Ann and I had some free time in between helping him and mom.  So, for the past three days we have been unpiling junk in the garage, sweeping up varmit feecees, organizing the unorganizable, shop vacing, and cleaning.

While we didn’t clean everything, we tackled enough of the garage to feel like we had won the battle.  Even better, when we began there was only enough room to fit one car.  Now, two vehicles can fit with room to spare.  Along the way I discovered some treasures, such as some brass inner tube caps (now on Biscuit), assorted transfercase and transmission rebuilt kits, the vin plate for my dad’s 1960 CJ-5 (which seems an appropriate direction to go with a next build project), and a Warn Overdrive Parts Catalog, which I think might be kind of rare.  I’ll post the entire catalog online in the next few days.  Below is the clean garage and the cover of the catalog.

Robin shared this humorous advertisement.  The seller either carefully, or not, decided on a peculiar abbreviation for the word ‘assembly’.

You can read the original ad here:  http://willysforsale.com/ads/willys-horn-ass/

Here is a snapshot of it.

Gerald forwarded me an email about this unusual car.  Built for the 1940 World Fair, this transparent 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six was sold at auction for $388,000 in the summer of 2011. This is the first time I’ve seen it.  You can read more at Hemmings:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/06/07/the-tin-indian-that-wasnt-rm-to-offer-see-through-pontiac/

“The 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six “Ghost Car,” first displayed at the New York World’s Fair and later at the Smithsonian Institution, was sold Saturday for $308,000.

Originally built for $25,000, the car with a Plexiglas body was the first transparent car built in America . Another was built the following year, but its whereabouts are unknown.

“This is the only one known to exist,” said Alain Squindo, a car specialist for RM Auctions, which held the auction for the “Ghost Car” and other specialty vehicles in Plymouth , Mich. “It’s a very original car.”

The Ghost Car was first displayed at the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair, Squindo said. It toured a number of dealerships, and then was at the Smithsonian in Washington , D.C. for a number of years.

It has been owned by the same family since the 1980s. “They were rather sad to see their beloved car go,” Squindo said. He could not disclose the name of the buyer.

The car has 86 miles on it, picked up by being driven in and out of dealerships for displays. It was a collaboration between GM and Rohm & Haas chemical company, which made the Plexiglas. Structural metal underneath was given a copper wash and all hardware, including the dashboard was chrome-plated.”

UPDATE:  It turns out this picture is from the book “Jeepen i Sverige”.  I discovered this connection on a thread at G503.com.

Here are some more pictures from the “Jeepen i Sverige”:  http://cj3b.info/Finds/FindsSweden.html (looks like a very interesting book!)
Original Post 04/28/2012:
Buz discovered this image on FLICKR.  Despite looking like a ww2 photo, this was taken in 2008 by ‘Magnus’.  According to the caption, the Willys MB lies in a marshland in a forest, “it was dumped there on the ice during winter, in hope that it would sink in the summer.”  This is somewhere in Sweden.  It sure looks like there are salvageable parts on it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32687125@N05/3297206639